LEARN MORE ABOUT CLIMATE IMPACTS IN OUR AREA AND THE CHOICES YOU CAN MAKE FOR A HEALTHY PLANET!
CHOICES FOR A HEALTHY PLANET
Below are 20 choices you can make to improve life on the planet, from water use, landscaping around your home and community, to where and how you get your food. Pick one of the 20 from the list to try for a day, week, or lifetime. Each choice matters to the health of the watershed and can be done by individuals, schools, friends, and families or within your community. To learn more about each choice, click on the links in each section, and thank you for caring about our watershed!
TRAVEL
Carpool with friends or rideshare services such as Moovit or Share A Ride. 12.2% of American workers already carpool but 75.7% of US workers commute alone via car, truck, or van.
Walk/ride instead of driving. Plan a route on your bike or go for a short hike instead of a country drive.
Take public transit such as trains, buses, and shuttles. These can get you to work, downtowns, and shopping plazas.
Links:
https://www.walkscore.com/score/
https://www.penndot.gov/TravelInPA/Pages/default.aspx
https://sharearide.agilemile.com/ (focused in Delaware valley )
REDUCE & REUSE
Get a reusable water bottle! A family of four with reusable plastic water bottles can save $123,000 after five years.
Other reusable items include bamboo toothbrushes, glass or metal containers, reusable bags, and wooden disposable utensils.
2. Purchase rechargeable electronics, reducing the number of batteries being disposed of in landfills and hazardous waste sites.
3. Reduce the amount of clothing you buy or get clothing from sustainable sources. Only 15% of consumer textiles are recycled, with the remaining 85% ending up in landfills or incinerated.
4. Reuse grocery bags. Opt for paper bags and reuse them around the home. Many stores offer recycling of plastic shopping bags.
5. Buy in bulk! Reduce the amount of foods that you buy that come in plastic/paper packaging. Avoid individual packaging, snack packs, and packaged meals. Each American creates 4.40 pounds of trash per person per day!
Links:
https://www.nrdc.org/stories/single-use-plastics-101#avoid
http://ecocycle.org/recycle-compost-reuse#recycle (excellent resource and game — orange button top left)
WATER
Be mindful of how much water you use and where you use it. Global water use has grown sixfold in the last 100 years and continues to increase at a constant rate of 1% per year. Use a tool like the Water Calculator to discover how much you use daily!
Get a rain barrel! This slows stormwater runoff and you can use it for gardening and washing the car.
3. Don’t throw trash into or along rivers, or do a trash pickup! Not only does this harm your local environment, but over 4-12 million tons of plastic reach our oceans each year.
4. Take shorter showers. It’s easy to use a timer or make a short shower playlist to help!
5. Reuse bath water for flushing. Toilets use anywhere from 1.6 - 7 gallons of water per flush!
6. Run the dishwasher only when full. Consider upgrading to ENERGY STAR certified appliances to save water and electricity.
Links:
https://www.watercalculator.org/wfc2/q/household/
https://www.walkforwater.in/blue-revolution-club/
https://www.londongrove.org/green-corner/green-gardening/xeriscaping/
HABITAT/PLANTS
Plant native trees. These species increase the water table, increase biodiversity, prevent erosion and protect against destructive invasive species, and shade streams keeping them cooler for wildlife.
2. Visit local parks and preserves to get in touch with nature. Try to identify a new species of plant or animal each time!
3. Convert areas of your lawn into a wildflower meadow to reduce mowing, watering, fertilizer, and pesticides. Native plants and native wildlife are interconnected and depend on one another for food, survival, and shelter.
Links:
https://www.brandywine.org/conservancy/resources/invasive-plants
https://www.imapinvasives.org/mobile-tools
https://www.manada.org/native-plants/native-plant-landscaping-guides/
FOOD
Grow your own food, even just a couple of your favorite herbs or vegetables can liven up your meals.
2. Buy food in-season or from local sources like farm stands, farmers markets, dairies, and butchers. Eat it all, and compost the scraps- 40% of all food in the United States goes to waste!
3. Explore protein options- try a Meatless Monday! If every American cut their meat consumption by half, we could cut agricultural carbon pollution and save a lot of water!
Links:
https://www.epa.gov/recycle/how-create-and-maintain-indoor-worm-composting-bin
https://www.agriculture.pa.gov/Business_Industry/pa_preferred/Pages/In-Season-Now.aspx
learn more about climate change in Pennsylvania:
This post was created in partnership with Stroud Water Research Center and funded by a National Park Trust grant.
